At least 32 ‘mass graves’ of illegal migrants, most of them reportedly from Bangladesh and Myanmar, were discovered on remote and rugged mountainous areas in Thailand’s Songkhla province bordering Malaysia, according to international media reports.
A Bangladeshi migrant was rescued alive from a grave and he was being treated at a local hospital, the media reported on Saturday.
His condition was stated to be ‘stable’.
‘We have sought details about the graves and the victims. Our ambassador in Thailand is in touch the Thai government,’ foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque told New Age Saturday.
He said Bangladesh would take next steps after getting the information.
It is believed that the Bangladeshi victim was left there to die as he was sick. The police wanted to talk to him to have more information about the traffickers, the reports said.
Tens of thousands of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, particularly from the persecuted Rohingya Muslim community, make dangerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a trafficking route often on the way south of Malaysia and beyond.
An international racket in collusion with its local agents usually make the victims of trafficking hostages in remote bordering areas of Thailand for ransoms from their relatives, said officials in Dhaka.
AFP reported that Thailand’s borders with Malaysia were notorious for its network of secret camps where smuggled migrants were held, usually against their will until relatives pay up hefty ransoms.
Bangkok Post, a newspaper in Thailand, reported that Thai authorities on Saturday resumed excavation of a mass grave site in a remote jungle where migrants believed to be from Myanmar and Bangladesh were held for months in appalling conditions.
Eight bodies have been recovered so far from the abandoned human traffickers’ camp in Sadao district of Songkhla province bordering Malaysia.
Efforts to dig up the remainder of the 30 graves were hampered overnight by heavy rain, the report said.
The causes of the deaths are not yet to be clear, but grim details emerged Saturday of the conditions endured by the migrants, in what Thai police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang has described as a ‘virtual prison camp’ where migrants were held in makeshift bamboo cages.
‘There were 32 graves, four bodies have now been exhumed and are on their way… to hospital for an autopsy,’ AFP quoted Sathit Thamsuwan, a rescue worker who was at the scene soon after the site was found, as saying.
The worker, however, said it was unclear how they had died.
Expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry secretary Khandaker Md Iftekhar Haider said he had just come to know about the matter media reports.
‘It is a result of illegal migration,’ he said, adding that the ministries of home and foreign affairs were working to stop illegal migration.
The secretary said that the expatriate welfare ministry would take necessary steps after everything was clear about the incidence in Thailand.
When asked, Refugee and Migrating Movements Research Unit founding chair Tasneem Siddiqui told New Age that illegal migration had been taking place as scope of legal migration was very limited.
She said that RMMRU had filed a writ petition with the High Court over rescue of Bangladesh nationals in Thailand.
It was the responsibility of the government to immediately stop illegal migration from the country, she said.
In October, 2014, a total of 130 Bangladesh nationals had reportedly been rescued after being abducted and shipped to Thailand to be sold as ‘slaves’.
The rescued men were promised well-paid jobs before being drugged and kidnapped.
A Bangladeshi migrant was rescued alive from a grave and he was being treated at a local hospital, the media reported on Saturday.
His condition was stated to be ‘stable’.
‘We have sought details about the graves and the victims. Our ambassador in Thailand is in touch the Thai government,’ foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque told New Age Saturday.
He said Bangladesh would take next steps after getting the information.
It is believed that the Bangladeshi victim was left there to die as he was sick. The police wanted to talk to him to have more information about the traffickers, the reports said.
Tens of thousands of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, particularly from the persecuted Rohingya Muslim community, make dangerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a trafficking route often on the way south of Malaysia and beyond.
An international racket in collusion with its local agents usually make the victims of trafficking hostages in remote bordering areas of Thailand for ransoms from their relatives, said officials in Dhaka.
AFP reported that Thailand’s borders with Malaysia were notorious for its network of secret camps where smuggled migrants were held, usually against their will until relatives pay up hefty ransoms.
Bangkok Post, a newspaper in Thailand, reported that Thai authorities on Saturday resumed excavation of a mass grave site in a remote jungle where migrants believed to be from Myanmar and Bangladesh were held for months in appalling conditions.
Eight bodies have been recovered so far from the abandoned human traffickers’ camp in Sadao district of Songkhla province bordering Malaysia.
Efforts to dig up the remainder of the 30 graves were hampered overnight by heavy rain, the report said.
The causes of the deaths are not yet to be clear, but grim details emerged Saturday of the conditions endured by the migrants, in what Thai police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang has described as a ‘virtual prison camp’ where migrants were held in makeshift bamboo cages.
‘There were 32 graves, four bodies have now been exhumed and are on their way… to hospital for an autopsy,’ AFP quoted Sathit Thamsuwan, a rescue worker who was at the scene soon after the site was found, as saying.
The worker, however, said it was unclear how they had died.
Expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry secretary Khandaker Md Iftekhar Haider said he had just come to know about the matter media reports.
‘It is a result of illegal migration,’ he said, adding that the ministries of home and foreign affairs were working to stop illegal migration.
The secretary said that the expatriate welfare ministry would take necessary steps after everything was clear about the incidence in Thailand.
When asked, Refugee and Migrating Movements Research Unit founding chair Tasneem Siddiqui told New Age that illegal migration had been taking place as scope of legal migration was very limited.
She said that RMMRU had filed a writ petition with the High Court over rescue of Bangladesh nationals in Thailand.
It was the responsibility of the government to immediately stop illegal migration from the country, she said.
In October, 2014, a total of 130 Bangladesh nationals had reportedly been rescued after being abducted and shipped to Thailand to be sold as ‘slaves’.
The rescued men were promised well-paid jobs before being drugged and kidnapped.
Source: New Age
